A report issued by Human Rights Watch this week has revealed abuse, torture and ill-treatment of both trans and gay people by Lebanese internal security forces, including physical violence, intimidation, humiliation, and forced confessions.

Russia: Putin signs anti-’gay propaganda’ bill into law

An official publication has reported today that President Vladimir Putin has signed into law an anti-”propaganda” bill targeting non-traditional relationships, which was recently approved by both house of the Russian Parliament.

UN condemns Nigeria’s Parliament for passing anti-gay law

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has condemned Nigeria’s Parliament for passing a law that further criminalises homosexuality by punishing those who try to enter same-sex marriages.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down key parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The legislation prohibiting voting practices that discriminate against persons based on their race was signed into law after relentless work of civil rights advocates such as the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, Julian Bond, the late Rev. Bruce Klunder, the late James Earl Chaney, the late Andrew Goodman and the late Michael Henry Schwerner.

The law—which has helped stop recent discriminatory voter identification mandates—is the very law that helped put into office President Obama and the numerous and remarkable women and people of color who serve as leaders on Capitol Hill and who have helped usher in this great moment in United States history.

The Top 5 LGBT Court Cases

The two high-profile opinions pending release this month from the U.S. Supreme Court could end up being as historic as the Loving v. Virginia decision, which struck down laws against marriage for interracial couples in 1967. They could be as dramatic as Roe v. Wade, which struck down most restrictions against abortion in 1973. And, they’re already getting as much attention now, if not more, than pending decisions on the Voting Rights Act and affirmative action.

Gay Married Man Gets Green Card

Late Friday, just two days after the US Supreme Court released their decision gutting the Defense of Marriage Act, a permanent visa, aka green card, was issued to Traian Popov, a Bulgarian man married to Florida-based club DJ Julian Marsh.

According to published reports, the notice of approval came via email. The New York Times reports that the approval is "evidence that the Obama administration was acting swiftly to change its visa policies in the wake of the court’s decision on Wednesday invalidating the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA."

Gays And Lesbians Turn Fight To Workplace Discrimination Ban

July 09, 2013 6:00 PM

With new momentum for same-sex marriage from the , gays and lesbians are hoping for progress in another sphere: the workplace. In more than half the country, it's still legal to fire people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

On Wednesday, Senate lawmakers will once again debate a bill that would change that.

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) Religious leaders in Africa strongly rebuked President Obama’s call to decriminalize homosexuality, suggesting it’s the reason why he received a less-than-warm welcome during a recent trip to the continent.

In a news conference in Senegal during his three-nation tour, just as the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on same-sex marriage, Obama said African nations must grant equal protection to all people regardless of their sexual orientation.

While some LGBT equality advocates settled in for a night on the sidewalk in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on the eve of its marriage rulings, others gathered in the Capitol Visitors Center for a screening of Born this Way, a new documentary about LGBT people in Cameroon, a country with laws that criminalize homosexuality.

The documentary introduces viewers to several courageous gay men and lesbians willing to go on camera to share their stories and the lives that leave them vulnerable to threats of violence, arrest, and jail time for the crime of being gay. Also prominently featured is Alice Nkom, a prominent human rights lawyer who advocates on behalf of people who are prosecuted under anti-gay laws.

Senate Panel OKs ENDA

Gay rights advocates won another victory Wednesday after a Senate panel approved a bill that would prohibit employers from discriminating against workers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The measure won support from all the Democrats and three Republicans on the 22-member committee, signaling it has a strong chance of passage in the full Senate.

Lebanon: Being gay is not a disease and needs no treatment

First Arab country to declassify being gay as a ‘disease’

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Homosexuality is not a mental disorder and does not need to be treated, the Lebanese Psychiatric Society (LPS) said Thursday in a statement published by the Ministry of Information.

“Homosexuality in itself does not cause any defect in judgment, stability, reliability or social and professional abilities,” LPS said, in response to recent arrests and mistreatment of LGBT people in Lebanon.

“The assumption that homosexuality is a result of disturbances in the family dynamic or unbalanced psychological development is based on wrong information.,” the organization said.

Earlier this month we reported on Born this Way, a documentary about LGBT rights activists working in Cameroon amid denunciations from religious leaders and threats of violence. Today comes the crushing news, via Human Rights Watch, that LGBTI activist Eric Ohena Lembembe has been tortured and killed, and that the headquarters of Alternatives-Cameroun, the HIV services organization featured in the documentary as a refuge for so many people, has been burned down.

Cameroon Blasts Reporting of Gay Activist’s Death

Cameroon lashed out at the media on Friday for its reporting on the recent killing of a prominent anti-gay activist and warned that future "provocative commentary" on the case would be illegal.

In the first official response to the killing of Eric Ohena Lembembe, government spokesman Issa Tchiroma said in a statement that journalists had engaged in "speculation and witch-hunting" in their coverage of the case, which has drawn expressions of concern from the U.S., France, Britain and the U.N.

Archbishop Tutu: South Africa must reject homophobic discrimination

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, famous for his role in ending apartheid, has called on South Africa to reject homophobic discrimination as part of a new LGBT global public education campaign by the United Nations Human Rights Office.

UN Human Rights Office Unveils Gay-Rights Campaign

Amid a surge of anti-gay violence and repression in several countries, the United Nations’ human rights office on Friday launched its first global outreach campaign to promote tolerance and greater equality for lesbians, gays, transgender people and bisexuals.

Called Free & Equal, it’s an unprecedented effort by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to change public attitudes around the world on issues that have bitterly divided the U.N.’s own member states.

Zimbabwe President Threatens to Behead Gay Citizens

by Michael Cox

EDGE Contributor

Monday Jul 29, 2013

Addressing a rally of thousands of Zimbabwe African National Union supporters in Mutare, Zimbabwe last week, President Robert Mugabe vowed to continue to criminalize homosexuality, saying gay men and women "worse than pigs, goats and birds" and threatening to behead them, reported News Day.

LGBT Fairness Film to be Shown in Eastern Panhandle

A group devoted to fair treatment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender West Virginians is screening a film that features 14 personal stories. The film will be shown at two communities in the Eastern Panhandle.

Fairness West Virginia Institute is launching the "Faces of Fairness" tour Thursday at Musical Grounds European Coffeehouse in Fayetteville, W.Va.

[Called Out Editors’ Note: Russia will enforce its laws against gay propaganda during the winter Olympics. Russia will not enforce is laws against gay propaganda during the winter Olympics. There have been two complete flip flop cycles at this point, if we’re keeping track properly.]

Russia Will Enforce Anti-Gay Law During Olympics

Russia will enforce a new law cracking down on gay rights activism when it hosts international athletes and fans during the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, the country’s sports minister said Thursday, appearing to contradict assurances to the contrary from the International Olympic Committee.

IOC Official Calls for Diplomacy on Anti-Gay Law

WASHINGTON -- International Olympic officials should use "all the avenues possible" with the Russian government to ensure that athletes competing at next year’s Winter Games in Sochi aren’t affected by a new anti-gay law, IOC presidential candidate Richard Carrion said Friday.

Mayor Vincent Gray (D) signed into law Tuesday afternoon two measures aimed at expanding opportunity and choices for District’s LGBT community.

With Gray’s signature, the JaParker Deoni Jones Birth Certificate Equality Amendment Act of 2013 and the Marriage Officiant Act of 2013 - both unanimously passed by the D.C. Council earlier this summer - will become law if, as expected, they pass the required 30-day congressional review period.

ND US Attorney to LBGT Community: You Have An Ally

North Dakota’s U.S. attorney told members of the Fargo area’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community Sunday that they will have a friend in government as long as he’s the top federal prosecutor in the state.

Puerto Rico to Debate New Gay Rights, Gender Bills

Religious groups gathered Wednesday in front of Puerto Rico’s seaside capitol to protest proposed laws that would allow same-sex couples to adopt children and would establish a public school curriculum examining gender issues including sexual discrimination.

ABA Unanimously Passes Resolution Curtailing "Gay Panic" Defense

by Bobby McGuire

EDGE Contributor

Tuesday Aug 13, 2013

As reported in the ABA Journal, yesterday during the annual meeting of the American Bar Association in San Francisco, the House of Delegates - the ABA’s governing body, unanimously passed a resolution urging federal, state, local and territorial governments to pass legislation curtailing the availability and effectiveness of the use of "gay panic" and "trans panic" defenses by criminal defendants.

New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie is today expected to sign into law a ban on therapist attempting to turn teenagers straight. New Jersey will be the second state to enact such a law after California.

The 41 Commonwealth Nations where being gay can land you in prison

The Queen is the head of the Commonwealth of Nations, the international body that was created out of what was formerly the British Empire. The Commonwealth states that its core values are “democracy, freedom, peace, the rule of law and opportunity for all.” However, freedom, peace and the opportunity for all are clearly denied to LGBT people in 41 of the 54 countries that are member states.

Sexual Minority March in Nepal to Demand Rights

KATMANDU, Nepal -- About 1,000 gays, lesbians, transgender people and their supporters, many dressed in colorful clothes and holding banners, marched through Nepal’s capital on Thursday to celebrate and demand rights for their community, in what has become an annual festival.

Kenya criminalises homosexuality but allows for straight polyandry and polygamy

When opponents claim same-sex marriage could lead to polygamy maybe they should look at Kenya – the country criminalises homosexuality – yet two Kenyan men have signed an agreement to marry the same woman.

Federal Court Backs Calif. Ban On Conversion Therapy For Minors

August 29, 2013 3:53 PM

California's pioneering law that prohibits treating young gay people with psychotherapy in an attempt to change their sexual orientation has cleared a constitutional challenge in federal appeals court. The in San Francisco ruled that the ban does not violate essential rights.

Calif Court Upholds 1st Ban on Gay-to-Straight Therapy

A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the nation’s first-of-its-kind law in California prohibiting health practitioners from offering psychotherapy aimed at making gay youth straight.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the state’s ban on so-called conversion therapy for minors doesn’t violate the free speech rights of licensed counselors and patients seeking treatment.

Man Killed For Being Gay in Yemen: Al-Qaeda Suspected

Friday Aug 30, 2013

A security official in Yemen told sources at AFP that a Yemeni man was shot and killed Thursday by Al-Qaeda gunmen. The official said that the man was targeted because the assassins believed that he was gay.

Comment: With all eyes on anti-gay Russia, there are three countries with a shocking need for coverage

Paul Canning looks critically at media coverage of the LGBT situation in Russia, highlighting other areas around the globe where hate crimes and violence have also soared, yet where media coverage is still minimal.

It’s Russia, Russia, Russia when it comes to ‘foreign gay news’ these days. But it’s a much bigger and badder gay world out there.

Although the video footage of gays being tormented by Russian Nazis is mainstream news, worse footage from Jamaica is failing to attract anything like the same attention. The Jamaican situation is getting so bad, with the government doing nothing about what seems to be a wave of murders and violent attacks, that the veteran, exiled gay leader Maurice Tomlinson is on the verge of calling for economic sanctions.